After the UVs were done I went back to ZBrush to refine the model and add the details. At this stage I also built the base mesh for the astronaut suit in Max so I could bring it into ZBrush along with the head and torso. Once I had all the elements in ZBrush, I could think about the final composition as I began adding details (Fig.05).

Fig. 05

Detailing

Now that I had all the props in the scene in ZBrush, I made some groups for the face and some for the clothes, so it would be easier to hide the parts I wasn't working on.

I started to add wrinkles on the face using the Standard brush along with two Alpha brushes I made myself, from two of the great bump maps from 3DTotal's V04:R2 - Total Textures "Humans & Creatures" DVD I've used those two textures on lots of models, especially for aged characters. They are great for adding wrinkles around the eyes and on the forehead (Fig.06).

Fig. 06

For the details on the clothes I first painted the textures in Photoshop, and then came back to ZBrush, extracted an alpha texture from the color map - you can do this simply by going to Mask and selecting Mask By Intensity - and inflated the unmasked surfaces. I also added some stitches on the clothes with the ZBrush Stitch brush so I could have them on the normal map too, not just on the color and bump (Fig.07).

Fig. 07

Texturing

For the face and skin texture I started as I usually do, by creating a base layer. This time I used two 3DTotal skin textures, which were blended together and then I added a new layer to control the Hue/Saturation. This step is really good because it lets you easily change and preview the skin tone, before you get into the detail (Fig.08).

Total Textures

So, having the base layer done, I went back to ZBrush for another fun part: the polypainting. I like to mix polypainting with photo texturing, so I can constantly tweak both aspects.

I started the painting by adding some landmarks with row colors and then adding a smooth layer with the base color. After this step I exported the texture through Zapplink to Photoshop, where I used some photo reference textures to add detail to the most important parts of the face.

For the eye texture I used a texture called "Eye 07" from the V04:R2 - Total Textures "Humans & Creatures" DVD, which fitted the character really well. I've discovered lately that there is a great .PSD file on this 3DTotal CD called "Human Eye Maker", which is great as it has all the layers separated and they are easy to tweak (Fig.09).

When I did the astronaut costume, I decided to move away from the reference a bit by changing the color. An orange suit would be too common for Mr Spock, as everyone knows him for wearing blue. So I found some great textures on V02:R2 - Total Textures "Aged & Stressed that fitted perfectly on the base blue layer (Fig.10).